The Town Hall

Since Scootaloo's only clue to the disappearance of her companion had been the door closing, and since it was the only way out of the library, the only one she knew of anyway, she decided to exit the room through the door they'd entered. After that, the pegasetta began to wonder if perhaps the pink earth mare had needed to use the mares' room, or maybe went to get something to eat, and had simply decided to leave the crusader to continue looking for information on her own. With no other ideas to work with, the crusader started looking at doors, beginning with the library and continuing toward the back of the town hall, searching for one with a picture of the silhouette of a mare's head on it. After all, between the library and the entrance to this building, she hadn't seen any doors with the silhouette of the head of a mare or a stallion.

When she came to one door that had the silhouetted image of a mare's head on it, looking up at the image brought back memories of the past twenty or so hours, memories she'd rather forget. She remembered how she'd awoken once in one mares' room, then once in front of another one; and each of those times had lead to her finding somepony dead, suspended by chains between the floor and ceiling of a room. But, she hadn't awoken in front of or inside this one. And, that gave her hope that she'd find her companion, or at least somepony, alive. So, she went through the door and called out, “Pinkie Pie, are you in here?” But, there was no answer. In fact, aside from those she knew were coming from herself, there was no sound at all.

Knowing that she shouldn't, still Scootaloo looked under the door of each stall, hoping to find somepony, hopefully her companion, in that stall. But, each stall she checked she found empty. Then, after checking the last stall, she came to a realization: all these toilets available, and she needed to use one of them. Considering there was nopony in this mares' room, perhaps nopony in the building at all other than her, although she was still hoping to find Pinkie Pie alive, the filly decided to make use of the toilet in the last stall she'd checked. And, since she was the only pony in there, she felt no need to close and lock the stall door.

It didn't take very long. She hadn't had anything to eat since she and the pink party pony had gotten to Cloudsdale, so that all she needed to do was pee. And, when she was finished, she left the stall and proceeded to climb up onto the sink across from it, to wash her front hooves. But, when she got a look at her reflection in the mirror, to her horror she saw not her own face, but the face of Fluttershy. Yet, there was something wrong with the pegasa's face. Her eyes were wide open, but missing. That, or they were completely black. Either way, they made her sockets look like pitch-black caves. And, her mouth was open too, revealing another cave, one as black as were her eyes.

Scootaloo's fight-or-flight instinct took over, and she screamed and retreated from the sight. But, because in her panic she'd forgotten to use her wings, the lack of friction on the sink's surface joined forces with gravity against the crusader, causing her to fall, and land hard on the floor. Still, neither the impact nor the sudden pain stopped her from backpedaling away, back into the stall behind her, until she hit the bowl of the toilet she'd used. Finally stopping, she hid within her wings. And there, in that position, she waited for at least a minute, hiding from the monster she saw while at the same time struggling to get her breathing back under control.

When she dared open her wings again, she realized she was still alone, which made her feel better. But, she had to wonder, why did she see Fluttershy's face that way? As far as she knew, she'd done nothing to the yellow pegasa that'd cause her to haunt her that way. Still, it seemed as though washing her front hooves wasn't going to be such a good idea after all, not so long as she was going to have to see the yellow pegasa's face in the mirror. Scootaloo decided to leave the mares' room.

And, just outside the door, as the pegasetta turned to her left, she saw Mayor Mare, facing away from her. Surprised, she called out, “Mayor, is that you!?”

The image the filly saw made no sound, just turned her head to look at her. But, what Scootaloo saw was not unlike what she'd seen in the mirror. Except, it wasn't Fluttershy's face with the pitch-black caves for eyes and mouth, it was Mayor Mare's.

Again the crusader panicked, retreating from the monster she saw. And, as she ran, turning at each corner until she got to the front door of the town hall, she remembered what she'd said to Pinkie Pie: “First Fluttershy, now Mayor Mare.” And, indeed, first it was the representative of kindness with that face, haunting her, then Ponyville's mayor. But, what had happened, what had she done to them, that they should want to haunt her?

As Scootaloo burst out of the town hall's double doors, she jumped from the top steps and used her wings to fly off. And, she didn't stop until she was back at the balloon, where this whole nightmare had started. She didn't dare look into the basket, she just dropped into a sphinx-style position in front of it, buried her face between her front hooves, and sobbed, “Why, Mayor? Why, Fluttershy? Why do you hate me?” And, she continued to sob.

Cloudsdale, in the Streets

It was several minutes later, perhaps even a whole hour, before the crusader had her emotions under control again. And, when she looked up, she saw one of those ponies again, one like the two she'd seen in front of the grocery store, like the army of ponies she'd seen lead by Commander Spitfire. And, seeing that pony, Scootaloo suddenly felt herself filled with rage.

Ponies hadn't died, hadn't been suspended in buildings, before things like that bizarre pony started showing up. And now, and now, there were two dead ponies; and Pinkie Pie had disappeared. Scootaloo didn't know why. She didn't need to know why. All she knew was that this strange pony was, had to be, responsible for the whole thing, perhaps even for the two waking nightmares she'd experienced. And, this strange pony had to pay for it.

Scootaloo galloped a few steps before opening her wings and flying toward the strange pony. But, before the crusader could get up off the ground, that strange pony disappeared behind a building.

The crusader flew to the last point where she'd seen the strange pony, then looked around to see if she could find her. And, she spotted the strange pony when she looked to her left, away from the path that had lead her and Pinkie to the town hall. Still furious with the strange pony, she flew towards it, only for it to disappear behind another building. Before she knew it, Scootaloo found herself following the familiar course to the weather factory. And, at the doorsteps of the factory, she found the culprit.

The battle didn't take long, it just took one sphere of energy from Scootaloo's left hoof; and the strange pony was a shower of metal fragments around her. And, it was only then that Scootaloo took notice of where she was. Why had the strange pony lead her here? What was so important about the weather factory?

Then, Scootaloo heard Rainbow Dash's voice in her ears, asking, “Will you kindly go into the bank?”

Again the filly felt herself falling into the realm of dreams. And, in that state, she said, “Yes, Rainbow Dash.” And, from the steps of the weather factory, she turned away and made her way to the road where the bank was on one side, and the grocery store on the other. And, at the steps of the bank, she turned and entered through the double doors.

The Bank

As the doors closed behind her, the crusader heard her heroine ask, “Will you kindly go to the bank's vault?”

Again Scootaloo said, “Yes, Rainbow Dash,” before making her way to the vault, in the back of the main room of the bank.

Seeing her companion again, Pinkie Pie started struggling against her chains as she said, “Oh, Scootaloo, I'm glad to see you again. Listen, you've gotta get me out of here. We've gotta stop Rainbow Dash. I'm sorry to have to say this, but, … she's not my friend anymore, not your friend anymore. She's the bad guy. Don't you understand, Scootaloo? Rainbow Dash is the villain! She's turned against us!”

Scootaloo looked up at the pink earth mare, suspended between floor and ceiling by chains, and watched her speak. But, all she heard was the azure pegasa ask, “Will you kindly kill Pinkie Pie?”

Still seeing things in a dream state, Scootaloo answered, “Yes, Rainbow Dash.”

The voice of her heroine added, “And, when you're done, I will guide you to the mares' room. Will you kindly clean up the mess you make? Leave no sign of what you do.”

Again Scootaloo answered, “Yes, Rainbow Dash,” before opening her wings and flying up to the suspended mare.

The representative of laughter didn't need her Pinkie sense to tell her that she wasn't going to make it out of this situation alive. But, still, she had to try to let her companion know, she had to try to free her companion from her hypnosis. So, she stopped struggling and said, “Listen to me, Scootie. I know why Rainbow Dash did what she did. I know what happened. Rainbow Dash killed those three stallions. She said so herself. It was her idea, her intent, to become the governor of Cloudsdale. But, she's not good anymore.

“She's the one that gave you those fake wings you're using. She had doctor ponies remove your wings and your forelimbs and replace them with fake ones. And, she's the one controlling you, telling you to kill me. But, you've got to fight it. Scootaloo, you've got to wake up. You don't want to do this. You don't want to be a murderer. You don't want to follow Rainbow Dash's example, not this way.”

The Ponyville Castle, in the Map Room

Three element bearers and one defecated draconequus (Discord had shriveled and changed color so that he literally looked like one big, lengthy, living bowel movement.) were seated around the table where the map of Equestria was displayed, waiting for news of how Pinkie's and Scootaloo's friendship mission was going. None dared speak, they just sat there and waited for something to happen, hoping it'd be something good for a change.

But, whatever good thing they were hoping would happen never would. The cutie marks of the three ponies again started to flash with crimson red light.

Seeing the glow, Twilight, Applejack, and Rarity screamed in alarm, then focused on the representation of the cloud city. And there above it they saw the image of three balloons, two blue and the middle one above them yellow, appear above the city.

Each of the three expressed her own disbelief in the impending death of the pink party pony, but they watched on helplessly as the image grew and blurred, then faded and eventually disappeared.

The three mares sat there, staring at the miniaturized cloud city, but only for a few seconds before their strength failed them.

Discord, the spirit of chaos and disharmony, felt something he'd never felt before, something that filled him with terror. He felt powerless. But, at the same time, the dose of chaos around him powered him so that he couldn't collapse as the ponies in the room with him had.

His favorite pony, the pegasa that had first shown him true friendship, the pony that had reformed him, had been the first to die, the first to be killed. Then there was that mayor pony. But, she was meaningless. But now, Pinkie Pie, who represented the element he favored the most, laughter, was dead.

His external appearance became only a faint shadow of how he felt inside. He didn't dare grieve, not yet anyway. He knew, he thought he knew, who was responsible for the three deaths; and he was going to wait for that filly to return so he could punish her. And, only after that little filly was adequately punished would he mourn over the loss of his two favorite ponies. But, for now, he would stay and watch until the little pegasetta returned.

The Bank, Starting in the Mares' Room

As had been the case with Fluttershy and Mayor Mare, Scootaloo had managed to clean up the mess she'd made, and had used Pinkie Pie's skin around the wound to sew it closed, in just a matter of seconds. After that, she'd made her way to the mares' room, following Rainbow Dash's instructions, and cleaned up the blade she'd used to kill the pink earth mare.

When she was done, she heard Rainbow Dash say, “Now, when you leave this room, will you kindly wake up, and remember no more what you did under my instructions? Will you kindly even forget my instructions?”

Scootaloo nodded and headed for the door to the bathroom, saying, “Yes, Rainbow Dash.” A few seconds later, she was outside the bathroom, where she woke up from her hypnosis. After shaking herself out, she turned around and saw the silhouetted image of the mare's face on the door behind her. The memories of the previous situations flooded her mind, and the crusader shook her head, repeatedly whispering the word, “No.” Fearing what she somehow knew to be true, she ran around the building, taking a break from repeatedly whispering “No” to say, “Please, Rainbow Dash, don't let it be you this time.” Then she entered the vault, and what she saw there filled her with relief and horror at the same time.

To her relief, it wasn't Rainbow Dash that was suspended between the floor and the ceiling. What horrified her was that it was her companion, the representative of laughter, Pinkie Pie.

Scootaloo collapsed into a canine-style position, unable to believe what she was seeing. Fluttershy had been the first, Mayor Mare had been the second, now Pinkie Pie. Who would do such a thing to two element bearers and the mayor of Ponyville, and why? Then, unbidden, the pattern became apparent to the little filly, followed by one thought that made her freeze in terror greater than she was already feeling, greater than she thought she could ever feel: what if she was next?

This was followed by a feeling of isolation that threatened to consume her. Scootaloo was familiar with loneliness, it had been a companion to her much of the time until she became friends with Applebloom, and then Sweetie Belle. But, they weren't here now. Pinkie Pie was, had been, but she was dead now. Who was going to help the little crusader? The only other pony she'd met, that she knew was alive, was Commander Spitfire. But, she didn't seem all that friendly.

The pegasetta reached out a front hoof toward one of the chains, the one holding Pinkie's right forelimb in place, and fired a sphere of energy at it, destroying the chain, and creating a burn mark on that limb. She then turned her forelimb to the chain keeping Pinkie's left forelimb in place, and fired another energy sphere at it, destroying the chain and part of that hoof. Scootaloo followed quickly by firing one energy sphere at each of the chains holding Pinkie's rear limbs in place before the pink party pony's body had time to drop to the floor in front of her. After that, she closed the distance between her and the remains of her companion, collapsed on top of it, and started sobbing once again.